News

Meatless Mondays’ Success Disputed

18 October 2013

US - The success of the campaign for Meatless Mondays in the US has grossly misrepresented the campaign’s enrolment and its prevalence among schools, restaurants, hospitals and colleges, according to the Animal Agriculture Alliance.

The Alliance said that since the inception of the Meatless Monday campaign, it has monitored the campaign’s progress and tried to correct its misinformation about the healthfulness of meat consumption and environmental impact of livestock production.

In anticipation of the Meatless Monday campaign’s 10th anniversary, the Alliance analysed the overall effects of the campaign and gauged its effectiveness by individually surveying every participant listed on the Meatless Monday website. T

he Alliance said it found that the campaign has not been as popular as the Meatless Monday movement claimed.

Out of the 236 kindergarten through twelfth grade schools listed as participating, more than 51 per cent no longer or never participated in the programme; Out of the 155 colleges/universities listed as participating, more than 43.2 per cent no longer or never participated in the programme;Out of the school districts listed as participating, more than 57 per cent no longer do.

The Meatless Monday campaign also counts restaurants and food service providers among their allies, yet, over 35 per cent and 47 per cent, respectively, no longer participate in the programme.

“These results are truly astounding. When we started the project, we didn’t expect nearly as many organisations to not actually be participating in the programme,” said Alliance President and CEO Kay Johnson Smith.

“The Meatless Monday campaign tries to promote a reduction in meat, milk and egg consumption as trendy, but clearly it hasn’t taking off as strongly as they’d hoped.”